DUPLE (C2) study guide
DUPLE (C2) · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
DUPLE (C2) is a high-level certificate of proficiency in French, aimed at candidates who already operate comfortably at the top of the Common European Framework scale and want independent evidence of that. It suits advanced learners, translators, teachers, postgraduate students and professionals who work in French and need to demonstrate control rather than mere fluency. The DUPLE (C2) study guide has 7 sections and about 2,954 words.
01Language Comprehension and Interpretation
Domain 1 - Language Comprehension and Interpretation - tests whether you can reconstruct an author's reasoning from extended authentic texts: essays, reviews, reportage, literary non-fiction. At C2 the barrier is rarely vocabulary.
432 words, about 2 min02Text Production and Written Expression
Domain 2 - Text Production and Written Expression - assesses whether you can produce a purposeful text that satisfies a brief: an argumentative essay, a formal letter, a report, a review or a magazine article. At C2, sentence accuracy is assumed.
458 words, about 2 min03Grammar, Syntax, and Usage
Domain 3 - Grammar, Syntax and Usage - tests advanced structures receptively and productively, not as isolated rules but as meaning choices. The exam rewards the candidate who knows why inversion, clefting or a subjunctive is used, and who can see when a structure is grammatical but inappropriate to the register.
452 words, about 2 min04Vocabulary and Lexical Range
Domain 4 - Vocabulary and Lexical Range - measures precision rather than volume. Knowing a rare word counts for little if it collocates wrongly or carries the wrong connotation.
405 words, about 2 min05Discourse Analysis and Cohesion
Domain 5 - Discourse Analysis and Cohesion - asks how a text holds together beyond the sentence. You are tested on naming the devices that create cohesion and, more demandingly, on diagnosing where a paragraph fails to cohere and on repairing it.
420 words, about 2 min06Pragmatics and Register Awareness
Domain 6 - Pragmatics and Register Awareness - tests meaning as action. You must infer what a speaker is doing with words - requesting, refusing, hedging, implying, establishing distance or solidarity - and judge whether the register fits the tenor of the situation.
411 words, about 2 min07Translation and Mediation Skills
Domain 7 - Translation and Mediation Skills - tests whether you can carry meaning, function and register across languages, and relay a source text accurately in summary or report form. Fidelity is judged at the level of the text, not the word.
376 words, about 2 min